How many of you have heard before about the famous Spanish padron peppers? There is a very popular saying in Spain that says: “Pimientos de padron, unos pican y otros no” which basically means “Padron peppers, some are spicy others are not”. The best of this saying is that is true! You will eat this delicious dish without knowing if it´s going to burn your mouth or not. As you can imagine, the doubt of being spicy or not is what makes it so famous, but the dish itself is very good, so you will love it no matter what´s the result.
Today we are going to talk about how to make padron peppers tapas, about how spicy are them, its origins and much more!
What are padron peppers?
Padron peppers are generally green peppers, but these are not like the common green pepper you can find everywhere. The padron peppers are a special kind of pepper, they have a smaller size and a brighter color than the normal ones. The padron peppers are typical from the north of Spain, from Galicia! Of course, they are not famous for its size or color, but for being a very tricky food.
Are padron peppers spicy?
As we said at the beginning, the reason why padron peppers are so famous is because they can be either really spicy or very normal. You won´t know if the one you are picking is spicy or not, so you will have to take the risk and try it. So…are padron peppers spicy? It depends, they can be very spicy, but there are also different levels, some of them are just a little bit, others are not hot at all and others will burn your mouth! (is not that bad)
How many padron peppers are spicy?
It´s very common to hear people complaining because their pimientos de padron were not spicy at all. The truth is that is impossible to know how many padron peppers are spicy. Generally, there are less spicy pepper than normal ones, but you can´t really know it for sure. You may eat 50 peppers and none of them spicy, or you may eat 5 and all of them hot.
How to make padron peppers tapas?
We have good news! Making padron peppers is very easy. It´s considered one of the easiest recipes in Spain. There is just one problem, is not easy to find them, and although you could make it with other peppers, we truly recommend you making this dish with pimientos de padron. It takes about 5 or 10 minutes to have it ready.
Padron peppers ingredients
- Around 20 padron peppers
- 2 garlic cloves
- A pinch of salt
- 50 ml of olive oil
Recipe for Spanish padron peppers
- Cut 2 garlic cloves in two pieces and put them on a frying pan with about 2 tbsp of olivo oil.
- Almost immediately, add the pepper so it gets the taste of the garlic. Keep stirring them for about 5/7 minutes to high heat.
- Once the padron peppers start to blist a little bit, you can take them out and add a pinch of salt.
- Your Spanish padron peppers recipe is done! Enjoy it!
How to eat padron peppers?
There is only one way to eat padron peppers! Don´t think about if it´s spicy or not, just eat the whole way and discover it later. Again, we repeat, there is no way to see if it´s spicy or not just by the look.
When talking about how to eat peppers? It really depends on you. Many people, eat it as a first dish or starter, and they take a bunch of them, but for others is too much of just peppers and they prefer to eat 1 or 2 as padron peppers tapas.
Padron peppers origin
Although now you can find them in more places (still not many places), the origin of Padron peppers comes from Galicia, from a small area known as the municipality of Padron. The padron peppers grow near the rivers Ulla and Sar in Galicia.
Currently, you will also find this type of peppers in the South of Spain, in United States, Mexico, Morocco and some areas of the UK and Canada. The pimientos de padron grow during the months of May and you can find them in the stores until October more or less.
Other thing you should know about the green padron peppers, is that it can also be found in a yellow or red color, but green is the common one.
Enjoy the padron peppers tapas
